


Reciprocity

by Copper_mouth



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: 30 year aged love confessions, Anal Fingering, Canon Disabled Character, Come Marking, Dom/sub Undertones, Intercrural Sex, M/M, Orgasm Delay/Denial, Tony Stark Still Has Arc Reactor, alien diplomacy 101, because reasons, rhodey has his braces, rhodey's had Enough, the aliens want tony's hot bod, they may be idiots but they're idiots together, unedited
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-07
Updated: 2020-01-11
Packaged: 2021-02-24 16:14:17
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,492
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22160773
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Copper_mouth/pseuds/Copper_mouth
Summary: “Our apologies,” the translator spoke, this time directed at Rhodey. “We did not realize – the star-bearer is your ______?”Whatever word the alien said, it couldn’t be translated into English.“Yes,” Rhodey said firmly.
Relationships: James "Rhodey" Rhodes/Tony Stark
Comments: 6
Kudos: 223
Collections: IronHusbands





	1. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fyi, sexy times are only in the second chapter. This part is the story, such as it is.

“No,” Rhodey said. “Absolutely not.” 

All eyes turned to him, human and alien alike. He kept his sights locked on Tony. 

“I won’t let you do that,” he said, stepping up to meet Tony, who had turned to him with wide eyes. The alien who had been doing most of the speaking wavered uncertainly, one appendage still hanging in the air from where it had been reaching for Tony. 

“What are you doing?” Tony asked lowly as Rhodey wrapped his hands around the biceps of the one the aliens had deemed “most beautiful, star-bearer, such an honor to meet you, please spend the evening with us and we will share in diplomatic pleasures.” He couldn’t disagree with them on the beautiful part, but no way in hell was he letting Tony be some sort of carnal liaison, soothing the tensions between the two species with his own body. 

It had been a few years since the last intergalactic war anyways. They were due. 

“They’re not going to touch you,” Rhodey answered. Tony’s eyes searched his, the muscles under his fingers corded taut and tense. 

Rhodey firmly kept his mind away from the fact that the rest of their teammates had seemed too reluctant to step into the middle of this political clusterfuck that had his Tony sucked down into its epicenter. Couldn’t think about that right now because he was going to have to keep working with them as a team – at least until they were back on Earth anyways. 

The alien started to speak again, the translator kicking in several seconds later. 

Tony turned in his arms to face the alien contingent. Rhodey took the opportunity to wrap himself even more firmly around Tony’s chest, pulling him tight against him. He could feel on a molecular level the annoyed glance Tony threw back up at him, but he ignored it. A few more seconds and the force of his glare just might set the smarmy bastards on fire – it was definitely close. 

“Our apologies,” the translator spoke, this time directed at Rhodey. “We did not realize – the star-bearer is your ______?” 

Whatever word the alien said, it couldn’t be translated into English. 

“Yes,” Rhodey said firmly. 

Tony made a small noise in the back of his throat, and his hands came up to grab hold of Rhodey’s arms where they were wrapped around his front. 

There was a very loaded pause. 

“Very well then,” the alien finally said. “We will not ask for the star-bearer again.” 

Rhodey could feel Tony give a little shudder from where he still held him, like it had been jostled loose from where he had been holding it in tight, shook out like a blanket the second his muscles loosened up enough to allow it. 

One by one, the aliens turned and filed out of the room. 

The rest of the team just sort of stood there, looking at them awkwardly. There wasn’t much room in the temporary quarters they were sharing on this neutral moon base, certainly not enough to give anyone as much privacy as they would like. 

“Ok everyone,” Tony clapped his hands together. Rhodey still hadn’t convinced himself to let go. “Congregate on the other side of the room, please, and cover your ears. Mommy and Daddy need to have a little talk.” 

There was a lot of sighing and a few curious looks but eventually the other Avengers shuffled off to crowd together at the far end of the dormitory. 

Tony rounded on him and raised his eyebrows in disbelief when Rhodey still didn’t relinquish his grip. He could feel a particularly mulish look formed on his face, but once again tonight he was faced with the realization that he _just didn’t care_. 

“What the hell was that?” Tony started in on him. It was honestly a little surreal to be on _this_ side of the conversation. 

“Huh? Were you trying to find out how close we could get to Star Wars without actually stepping over the line? There were a lot better ways to handle the situation than that, sourpatch, and you know it. Look – look at me. I’m being the voice of reason here. Do you have any idea how ridiculous that is? Of course you do, you were there in ’95, you know what happens when people depend on me to be the rational one – mmph!” 

Tony tasted like the honey-ish dessert the aliens had fed them before things started going downhill and the fiasco had really started. Wide eyes stared into Rhodey’s for just a second until they closed and Tony turned boneless in his arms. Rhodey shut his eyes as well and pressed deeper, one of them groaning as he pushed his tongue into the sweet slick of Tony’s mouth. The crush of lips under his had him feeling damn near like he was going to float right out of his braces. Tony pressed closer, and he felt a fire lighting up in response to burn achingly sweet into his bones. 

“Fucking finally,” someone muttered, probably Barton considering the sound of a slap to the back of the head and the hissed _ow_ that proceeded immediately after. 

It felt like years before they resurfaced. Tony was panting a little, mouth parted slightly as he stared up at him. Rhodey could not even begin to say what sort of expression he might have been sporting at that moment, but there was a hot, tight feeling across his eyes and he thought he might have been shaking somewhere, a little. Whatever it was he saw caused Tony to soften impossibly more against him. 

“Oh,” he said. 

Rhodey couldn’t help the laugh that escaped him. “Yeah – _oh_.” 

“You could have, I don’t know,” Tony pursed his lips thoughtfully. “Just told me?” 

“Been trying to tell you for 30 years, Tones,” he spoke into Tony’s lips, already opening up eagerly for him again. 

Rhodey cupped Tony’s face in his hands and set out to map every inch of that plush mouth. It was definitely Tony that groaned this time; when Rhodey swiped his thumbs over his cheeks there was a wetness there to match his own. 

Tony broke the kiss with a sob and turned to bury his face in Rhodey’s neck. There was a pain in his chest now, that old familiar twinge he got whenever he thought about the two of them, about how much he loved Tony, loved how their relationship was and how close they were, but he just always had to be greedy for more. 

The idea that he hadn’t been the only one feeling that way made him want to take Dr. Strange’s stupid necklace for a joy ride, go back far enough to smack some sense into the two of them in any way that might work – some way to get them where they were now a little faster than this. 

They were swaying against the wall now so Rhodey dropped them down to the floor and edged backwards until they were mostly obscured behind a bed. He cradled Tony in his arms and Tony gasped out a smile, a little watery thing, as he rested his head on Rhodey’s chest and clung to him. 

He shook his leg out a little to get his braces more comfortable, and Tony helped him get situated, then left his hands on Rhodey’s thigh, warmth seeping through his palms. 

It was – it was as good as he always knew it could be. 

It was as if the peg had always been just a smidge crooked of the slot, but with one small nudge it shifted ever so slightly and then it fit perfectly. 

“Should have done that years ago,” Rhodey murmured, kissing apologies into the tear tracks on Tony’s cheeks. 

Unreasonably long lashes swept upwards, smiling brown eyes revealed, and a smirk. The deadly combination that always did him in. 

“Might not have worked, earlier,” Tony said with a shrug. “You know, timing and reciprocity, and,” he cleared his throat, “possibly differing levels of emotional maturity. I’m told these things are all very important in a relationship.” 

He was grinning at Rhodey now, like the cat that got the cream. 

“So what you’re saying is,” Rhodey said with a little nip to his bottom lip, just to hear Tony’s breath catch. “The universe has finally aligned and decreed that it’s time for us to be together now? Hmm?” 

“Who are we to say no to the universe?” Tony answered him, a bit breathlessly. His eyes were fixed on Rhodey’s mouth. “ _I’m_ certainly not the one to play chicken with fate.” 

Rhodey snorted and decided not to grace that with a reply. He had better things to do right now anyways. 


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here is the pointless smut conclusion. It's been sitting in my drafts for way too long considering how short and low-stakes it is. Now I can finally say this is done.

It took forever for everyone else to fall asleep, or at least to slow their breathing down into a facsimile of sleep or whatever it was that spies and super soldiers did at night. At least Thor was down for the count, if the volume of the snoring was anything to go by. 

At this point Rhodey figured if anyone was actually still awake and listening then whatever they heard was on _them_. He’d had Tony on the edge for well over an hour now and he needed to let him crash down over the other side and get some much-needed sleep. 

Tony was trembling in his arms, shuddering and wrecked as he worked at sliding his hips slowly against him. His breathing was deep now, even as he stuttered out pleas and little breathy cries into Rhodey’s ear. Both arms were trapped against his chest so he couldn’t sneak and get a hand on one of their cocks before Rhodey was ready for it. Again. 

Rhodey kept his mouth fixed to the buffet that was Tony’s neck and collarbones, left hand wound tightly into Tony’s hair – loosened into curls by now from sweat – and holding them close together. He was four fingers deep with his other hand, thumb held gently on the outside of that bundle of nerves he was stroking firmly from within. 

He could barely keep _himself_ from groaning out loud as he twisted his wrist and plunged his fingers in and out. The way Tony clenched around his hand and keened if he stilled – he could almost come untouched like a damn teenager just at the thought of getting his cock inside that welcoming heat. 

But that would have to wait. With the staying power that his new braces had, they’d damn near break this flimsy bed before Rhodey would have his fill for sure. 

For now, it was enough to have Tony wrapped in his arms, breathless and desperate and showing no signs of ever wanting to stop. He was a little surprised how willingly Tony had taken to this sweetest kind of torture – Rhodey knew better than anyone that Tony Stark was not a patient man. But Tony seemed perfectly content to stay strung out on this line with him, and Rhodey probably would have been dizzy if he’d actually had any blood left in his head to rush out of him with the realization that Tony was ceding this bit of his hard-won control to him because he wanted this, wanted _them_ that badly. 

Rhodey closed his mouth over Tony’s again, swallowed down his gasp and rolled back into it, pressing forward until he had Tony on his back and finally slipped his dick in between Tony’s legs. 

Tony groaned, probably a little too loudly for where they were, as Rhodey made his way across Tony’s neck and bit down, moaning his own pleasure into the salty skin between his teeth. 

He thrusted into the soft skin of Tony’s thighs, both hands now coming into place on his hips, causing Tony to squirm a little underneath him, testing the limits of Rhodey’s firm grip. 

Rhodey knew now that the place where Tony’s hip bones were closer to the skin was a sensitive area for him. He was going to find the rest of those spots that made Tony see stars and he was going to write a dissertation on them for how well he was planning to get to know them. 

Tony had plenty of room to maneuver his hands anywhere he wanted them now, but to his surprise they landed on Rhodey’s ass, trying to pull them even closer together. 

He was close now, could feel that familiar crest igniting his shaking legs and surging higher. Tony had to know – he had to know what he was doing to him, turning biddable and pliant at Rhodey’s unspoken request. 

He drew back enough to get his eyes on Tony’s, the warm gaze filling up his own sending him toppling over into his release. His orgasm slammed through him and Tony lifted up to seal his lips over Rhodey’s own, smiling beneath the beard scratching Rhodey’s face. 

Rhodey came down slowly, twitching through the after-effects in Tony’s hold, tense from his own lack of relief. Still he refrained from stroking himself to completion, because Rhodey had asked him not to, because Rhodey had sought out that trust and that responsibility and Tony had immediately surrendered it to him. 

He looked at Tony steadily as he gathered up the come that had splashed messily between Tony’s legs and pushed it into his hole with shaking fingers. 

Tony’s mouth parted on a silent cry and tears welled up in his eyes, wide and almost completely black for how dilated his pupils were as he looked up at Rhodey. 

Rhodey pulled his trembling body closer and kissed his way up to the soft place behind his ear that got him moaning as he continued on with his work. Finally, he had all of the come he could get his hands on pushed as far as he could inside Tony, where it belonged. 

Tony was pleading now, little breathy _pleases_ and gasps that sounded like his name. Rhodey drew their foreheads together as he finally wrapped his hand around Tony’s weeping cock and gave a few slow pulls from base to tip. 

That was all it took. Tony’s eyes rolled back in his head as he convulsed and erupted in Rhodey’s hands like a geyser. 

Rhodey held him through it, tucked his shaking limbs back into him and kissed him until the last of the aftershocks faded away. Tony lifted one leg up to wrap around his hips, pulling him closer, and he let Rhodey tuck his face into the crook of his neck with a sigh. 

In the morning, they would have to peal apart from each other, sticky and gross, possibly to the sound of well-meaning cheers and jokes from their teammates, and separate from each other, even if just for a little while. Tonight, though, they clutched each other as close as possible, closer than Rhodey had ever dared to hope for over the long years, and they rested at last. 

**Author's Note:**

> I'm trying to write a second chapter, just for the smut, but it is being difficult and not wanting to cooperate with me. So here is this at least, in case I never get the second part to actually work out.
> 
> Join me in pro-shipping, multi-shipping, Tony Stark stan hell on [tumblr.](https://copper-mouth.tumblr.com/)


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